Yo, what if Nintendo bought SEGA?

[Sharky]

Never going to happen... and I would not be in favour of it even if it was likely, mainly because of reasons already mentioned, so many games I think would suddenly have no chance of a future... No idea what would even happen to something like Total War. Even the slight risk of that being discontinued or becoming console exclusive is enough to want Sega to never join Nintendo let alone so many other games.

If however- it did happen, I would still be a fan of the Sega games that came out, I'd still follow the ones that still exist and hope they are awesome. I'm not a Sega fan for the name sake alone... But yeah, no thanks.

[Chaosmaster8753]

Well, what's happened when other big game publishers merged?

[TimmiT]

Not going to happen, but those who think that Nintendo would never try to revive franchises haven't been paying attention. In recent years they've revived Punch-Out, Sin & Punishment, Donkey Kong Country, Wario Land and at least attempted to do a new regular Metroid game, and they are releasing new Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem and Pikmin games. All games fans wanted from them.

There's also the Bayonetta 2 thing, and whether or not you think Nintendo's publishing it after Sega cancelled it, it does show that Nintendo has interest in titles like this.

Also, better question, what if SEGA bought Nintendo? =P

[CrazyT]

Beside what I think about the topic, the guy in the video is really an idiot talking out of his arse. In my opinion SEGA is much more artistic and creative then nintendo, SEGA is a lot more risky and daring. In his dreams that SEGA will be bought. Obviously not going to happen

[Kori-Maru]

Not going to happen, but those who think that Nintendo would never try to revive franchises haven't been paying attention. In recent years they've revived Punch-Out, Sin & Punishment, Donkey Kong Country, Wario Land and at least attempted to do a new regular Metroid game, and they are releasing new Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem and Pikmin games. All games fans wanted from them.

There's also the Bayonetta 2 thing, and whether or not you think Nintendo's publishing it after Sega cancelled it, it does show that Nintendo has interest in titles like this.

Also, better question, what if SEGA bought Nintendo? =P

Then I would pose like Vyse like he did in All-Stars Racing Transformed with victory in mind.

[Radrappy]

Beside what I think about the topic, the guy in the video is really an idiot talking out of his arse. In my opinion SEGA is much more artistic and creative then nintendo, SEGA is a lot more risky and daring. In his dreams that SEGA will be bought. Obviously not going to happen

Sega already was bought.  By Sammy.  Were you guys upset at all by that at the time? 

Also how is Sega more artistic and creative than Nintendo?  What about games like Pikmin, wind waker, and Rhythm Heaven?  What about the fact that Nintendo established kart racing and board game styled party games as genres, both of which Sega has attempted to shamelessly duplicate (Sonic Drift and Sonic Shuffle)?  I can understand people really really not wanting this to happen but it's no excuse to say silly things. 

Now, is Sega riskier?  Hell yes, and it's why they're in the shitter today.  To be fair though, Nintendo gambled heavily with motion controls.  The difference is that their gamble paid off while Sega's rarely did.     

[CrazyT]

I think many of us were devastated when we heard SEGA was being bought before we knew that it would affect the company so very little. Sammy is never associated or even brought up in any case in the games department. In that regard I respect Sammy because they've made the best decision. Of course they'll have a bit of influence in the financial side of things, but SEGA is still the SEGA I personally remember despite the tough times the industry is going through.

How is this any different from nintendo's overtaking? I think one part is of course a biased and mental side of the whole rivalry thing. I recognize that I am a fanboy. It's not for nothing that I own or try to own every SEGA game out there even if their average sometimes, before top quality games from other companies(well unless they're offending like sonic 4). But another reason is the both companies mentality's. SEGA is more mature and doesn't always play it safe. Even though it is not always helping SEGA, I respect that they gamble their passion and believes before financial results. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes there is either no loss or very little profit and sometimes it does not work out well. Otherwise we would have never had shenmue for example. But I think SEGA has found a pretty good balance between commerce and taking risks lately.

[semmie]

besides all that have been said untill now.

sega survives perfectly fine and doesnt need nintendo
in fact without being arogant. sega makes better games then nintendo if u dont count metroid and zelda.
mario is shitty
but apart from metroid and zelda nintendo makes dumb ass games.

even nintendo peeps will admit that ^^

and sega has enough stock to run perfectly fine.

[Ben]

I don't think it's true that being bought by Sammy "affected Sega very little." What we saw was the condension of some of Sega's best and most creative studios into big cluster****s who hadn't released a creative game since, Smilebit being the key example.

Sega hasn't been particularly daring in years. They are releasing some bold games in the digital space but almost as a rule, these are never developed in-house.

Frankly I think it would have been far better for Sega to have been bought by a company who actually specializes in game development, who could have used Sega's studios' individual talents well, not a company who will say, "ALRIGHT, COMBINE OVERWORKS INTO WOW ENTERTAINMENT AND HAVE THEM PUT OUT yearly......(or whatever the case may have been.)

[Radrappy]

I don't think it's true that being bought by Sammy "affected Sega very little." What we saw was the condension of some of Sega's best and most creative studios into big cluster****s who hadn't released a creative game since, Smilebit being the key example.

Seriously.  Sammy has done nothing but drag sega into the mud for the past decade.  All of 2006's blemishes are the direct result of Sammy's shuffling and reorganization of sega into what it is now.  If anyone else remembers,  in 2004 Sega directly refused the proposed merger with Sammy.  In response, Sammy bought a majority of Sega's shares, effectively forcing the merger to happen.  In my eyes Sega has been enslaved by a gambling company ever since.   

[Aki-at]

Again dude, none of those are of any interest to me as a Sega fan; they're not Sega games, it's that simple. It's nice that they'll bear the brand but that's not Sega.

That is your opinion, to me they are SEGA games simply because SEGA owns them. SEGA is/was hardly known for their rhythm games, does this suddenly mean that Rhythm Thief, which to me is not what I prefer SEGA to be doing, not a SEGA title?

It makes no sense. SEGA never had an identity that linked their games between all their teams except the brand name. There really is nothing linking Phantasy Star, Shinobi, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage or Shining Force except for the SEGA name and the letter "S" in all their titles.

To me we are all SEGA fans because they make good games. If they made bad games but had the same graphical style in all of them, would we be SEGA fans? Probably not.

None of which will come here and none of which are even close to as ambitious and groundbreaking Sega's games used to be. Skies of Arcadia is laughing at every Shining game released since.

That is irrelevant. Titles are still being greenlit by SEGA Japan, if SEGA America/Europe feels like they would be failures and thus not willing to bring the titles over, it's their fault.

And Skies of Arcadia is not groundbreaking. Its just a very well executed RPG. Just like 7th Dragon apparently seems to be.

Not going to happen, but those who think that Nintendo would never try to revive franchises haven't been paying attention. In recent years they've revived Punch-Out, Sin & Punishment, Donkey Kong Country, Wario Land and at least attempted to do a new regular Metroid game, and they are releasing new Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem and Pikmin games. All games fans wanted from them.

There's also the Bayonetta 2 thing, and whether or not you think Nintendo's publishing it after Sega cancelled it, it does show that Nintendo has interest in titles like this.

Of course Nintendo does sometimes take a risk on a non-million seller IP, but all those IPs mentioned are million sellers.

I don't think it's true that being bought by Sammy "affected Sega very little." What we saw was the condension of some of Sega's best and most creative studios into big cluster****s who hadn't released a creative game since, Smilebit being the key example.

Sega hasn't been particularly daring in years. They are releasing some bold games in the digital space but almost as a rule, these are never developed in-house.

Frankly I think it would have been far better for Sega to have been bought by a company who actually specializes in game development, who could have used Sega's studios' individual talents well, not a company who will say, "ALRIGHT, COMBINE OVERWORKS INTO WOW ENTERTAINMENT AND HAVE THEM PUT OUT yearly......(or whatever the case may have been.)

The restructure only badly affected United Games Artists. Otherwise the effects in the long run were negligible. Smilebit was merged with Amusement Vision and made Yakuza, whilst Overworks went on to make Valkyria Chronicles series, 7th Dragon series and Shining Blade.

[CrazyT]

I'm just saying that I didn't notice any difference myself after Sammy's takeover. When I look at all the games after the takeover I still see the exact same SEGA i'm used to, and really if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't have been here anymore. I think if there's one thing i've noticed after the takeover, it's the lack of quality control, which isn't necessary when there are great teams that don't need it, but that's changing now as well.

[Aki-at]

Seriously.  Sammy has done nothing but drag sega into the mud for the past decade.  All of 2006's blemishes are the direct result of Sammy's shuffling and reorganization of sega into what it is now.  If anyone else remembers,  in 2004 Sega directly refused the proposed merger with Sammy.  In response, Sammy bought a majority of Sega's shares, effectively forcing the merger to happen.  In my eyes Sega has been enslaved by a gambling company ever since.   

First of all, Sammy was SEGA's original option.
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2003/02/13/sega-to-merge-with-sammy

SEGA did refuse it but this was mainly because they wanted to merge with Namco. That deal never worked at and obviously in the end Sammy did purchase SEGA but considering they were also in talks with Microsoft and Electronic Arts, a bullet well and truly dodged. SEGA were bound to be sold, CSK was fed up with them.

Second, the merger allowed SEGA to have the funds to purchase both The Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive, two critically acclaimed studios in the UK. If they had a better president for SEGA America, perhaps we would not have to suffer with Secret Level and have a developer who could develop a hit.

Thirdly, what do you mean by blemishes? If you solely mean Sonic Team's output, then you should know they were not reshuffled by Sammy. The only issue I could see is the SEGA board ever green lighting something like Shadow and Silver.

[Aki-at]

I'm just saying that I didn't notice any difference myself after Sammy's takeover. When I look at all the games after the takeover I still see the exact same SEGA i'm used to, and really if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't have been here anymore. I think if there's one thing i've noticed after the takeover, it's the lack of quality control, which isn't necessary when there are great teams that don't need it, but that's changing now as well.

The issue was Sonic Team was one of the studios that really should have been dismantled and reshuffled but were left alone :/

After all, both Billy Hatcher and Sonic Heroes occurred before the merger.

[Radrappy]

First of all, Sammy was SEGA's original option.
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2003/02/13/sega-to-merge-with-sammy

SEGA did refuse it but this was mainly because they wanted to merge with Namco. That deal never worked at and obviously in the end Sammy did purchase SEGA but considering they were also in talks with Microsoft and Electronic Arts, a bullet well and truly dodged. SEGA were bound to be sold, CSK was fed up with them.

Second, the merger allowed SEGA to have the funds to purchase both The Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive, two critically acclaimed studios in the UK. If they had a better president for SEGA America, perhaps we would not have to suffer with Secret Level and have a developer who could develop a hit.

Thirdly, what do you mean by blemishes? If you solely mean Sonic Team's output, then you should know they were not reshuffled by Sammy. The only issue I could see is the SEGA board ever green lighting something like Shadow and Silver.

By blemishes I mean that Sammy did not help Sega's quality control what so ever.  If  they had merged with a competent creative company, things would have gone very very differently for them in those bumpy years.  Plus, I understand that Sammy was Sega's first choice.  I also understand that after reviewing the situation, they decided against it.  That was for a reason.  As for the current state of things, I read articles monthly about Sammy's tanking pachinko business.  They may have provided some immediate fiscal relief in 2004, but they are a dying company with no future today.  Seriously, it's in Sega's best interest to abandon ship if possible. 

The debate as to what makes a game "Sega-esque" I think is one in part driven by the shift in focus of the gaming industry from Japan to the West.  Sega in the 90's and early 2000s was a remarkably Japanese affair.  There was the odd title like Ecco the Dolphin or Toe Jam & Earl but Japanese-ness was essentially hard-coded into the company's identity.  To see Total War and Football manager as some of modern Sega's top earners is still a hard thing to swallow for many of us.  Rest assured, we'll get there in time.  I think it's just a reflection of the company's sickly state at the moment. 


By the way people, Binary Domain is now 20$ brand new at retail people.  Not sure if this is old news but I snagged a copy yesterday and am finally diving into the game.  I really enjoy shouting commands at my team mates, it's a fun little feature. 

I will say that this game portrays americans, westerners, and general international conflicts with almost the same laughable tone and outsider's opinion that Vanquish did.  Same goofy shots of the president and his cabinet discussing the problems at hand in a dimly lit high-tech looking room.  Same racial/gender stereotypes that Japanese games about foreigners are known for.  Over all though, it seems to be a fun little ride so far.